The initial contract in the treatment of borderline patients
Abstract
The initial treatment contract with a borderline patient recognizes the patient's potential for destructiveness and builds in safeguards. The therapist's effort to protect the treatment mobilizes the patient's primitive defenses. The therapist must be prepared to respond to resistance to the contract by clarification, confrontation, and occasionally interpretation. Although countertransference reactions evoked by the patient's use of primitive defenses complicate the therapist's task of defining the necessary treatment frame, the therapist's recognition of countertransference responses can enable him to establish and enforce an appropriate contract.
Access content
To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.- Personal login
- Institutional Login
- Sign in via OpenAthens
- Register for access
-
Please login/register if you wish to pair your device and check access availability.
Not a subscriber?
PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5 library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.
Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).